Health and Wellness

The book I just finished reading only moments ago, Disconnect, by Devra Davis Ph.D., M.P.H., Co-laureat Nobel Peace Prize 2007, is perhaps one of the most startlingly real books I have read in some time as it deals with the glue that holds our society and one may go as far as saying our civilization together.

I’m speaking of the cell phone.

I cant delve too much into the book without sounding foolish and making numerous misquotes, after all, who am I, surely not a scientist and barely a person worth listening to except for the fact that I read this book and am fairly able to write with some proficiency.

In essence, the cell phone comes from the same basic principle as the early aircraft radar systems which gave way to microwave ovens, officers would cook hot dogs on the tips of their swords in front of the radar, whilst sailors on watch would warm themselves in front of the radar on cold nights, others still would stand in front of the radar to reduce sperm counts before hitting ports of call as i was rumored to drop your sperm counts thereby being a form of birth control.

Not much has changed except for the fact that the power of these devices has increased while the size has decreased, which has in turn allowed cell phones to be increasingly powerful (analog, 2G, 3G, now 4G) and instance of brain tumors and tumors in the gland behind the jaw bone among other instances of dis-ease including a burgeoning instance of breast cancer (phones help for safe keeping in the bra???) are reaching unprecedented numbers.

If you do you best to live a healthy life, if you care about your children, please take some time to at least take a look at this book, after all, Steve Jobs (founder – Apple), would not let his children use computers or cell phones.

What you know is usually what you are told and what you are told, as we now know when it comes to most things, for example, asbestos, or weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or GMO’s to save the world from starvation, may have the best intentions at heart or may be complete lies, either way, it takes a long time for the truth to surface and when it finally does, then the cover ups are found and already a swath of destruction has been visited upon many lives.

The truth will always come out, but how about the carnage before the truth comes out when the industry sows lies to reap profit? Could cell phones be the next Tobacco… Or worse….

go to ehtrust.org, this is Dr. Davis’ site for more info and please do read the book. It is a rare thing to find so much information so very compelling and palatable!

Inside the Nation’s First Vegetarian Public School

A high-performing elementary school is taking a revolutionary approach to how students eat.

May 11, 2014 |

Thursday is always vegetarian, and sometimes vegan, in the cafeteria at Public School 244 in Queens, the nation’s first non-charter public school to serve only vegetarian meals. The 428 pre-kindergartners through third graders lined up at the salad bar and catered bins of jasmine rice, three-bean chili and steamed plantains, with an apple and oatmeal raisin cookie for dessert. None of the children, who live in the surrounding Korean and Asian-American neighborhoods of Flushing, seemed to clamor for the more typical school fare of hot dogs or fried chicken nuggets on that March afternoon. “We don’t necessarily want to promote a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, but you kind of get the message,” said one of the schools’ teachers, Christian Ledesma.

The idea to go meatless came about organically, so to speak, when teachers and staff at the 6-year old elementary school began paying attention to the lunches children were bringing from home. Eighty-six percent of the children are from Asian-American families, and most were toting vegetarian food in their lunch pails.

Principal Robert Groff, a former Teach For America corps member in the Bronx, co-founded the school around the idea of promoting a healthy lifestyle, which in turn bolsters academic excellence. It’s not about diet, Groff said, but about something broader. An early school partner was Fan4Kids, a nonprofit with corporate sponsorship that targets low-income elementary school children with lessons on good nutrition and activity.

The vegetarian emphasis in P.S. 244: The Active Learning Elementary School reflects what may be a growing trend outside city schools and across the country. Meat is becoming slightly less popular in the American diet in recent years. The Department of Agriculture reported that Americans consumed 12 percent less meat in 2012 than five years earlier. Forbes Magazine named high-end vegan food the number one food trend last year.

From 2009 to 2011, the percentage of vegetarian households rose to 5 percent, representing a 2 percent jump. Vegan diets doubled from 1 to 2.5 percent (equivalent to the number of people living in Los Angeles County). In addition, according to the a 2011 Harris Interactive Study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, an advocacy group, 17 percent of Americans consider themselves “flexitarian,” or those who elect a vegetarian diet for more than half of their meals.

Public schools for the most part have been slow to catch up. Still, in September last year, San Diego Unified School District adopted “Meatless Monday” in its elementary schools, when they serve plant-based meals to its kindergarten through fifth graders. Gary Petill is the director of the district’s food services, and said they jumped on the opportunity to educate young students about a plant-based diet. “We decided on K-5, because young children are learning lifelong eating habits,” Petill said. “We might get push-back in high school. With Meatless Monday, when the fifth-graders go to middle school, they may be more open to vegetarian options.”

In New York City, P.S. 244 is one of two public schools that serve vegetarian food only. The Peck Slip School M 343, located inside the former Tweed Courthouse, the Department of Education’s (DOE) headquarters in Brooklyn, is also offering a vegetarian menu. The school, which opened in September 2013, has classes from pre-K through the first grade. It plans to expand up to the fifth grade.

On one of the vegan menu days at P.S. 244, Groff wore a striped button-up shirt and a blue tie, his brown curly hair neatly arranged with hair gel. In his office is a bookshelf stuffed with folders. One pile is dedicated to visiting parents and media, and includes an invitation to family dinner night and a calendar that provides the cafeteria menu for every day of the month. Each day includes an “eat your colors” section—students are encouraged to eat a variety of vegetables, including carrot sticks, cucumber salad, and Brooklyn baked beans.

The folder also includes the school’s progress report. P.S. 244, on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Colden Street, received top marks in 2013 on standardized math and reading tests; it ranked 11th in the state. A healthy lifestyle focus, Groff believes, is an important element. During its inaugural year in 2008, students approached one of their teachers with a campaign. “They came up to me and said, ‘Look, we’ve been reading the nutrition facts on this chocolate milk, and it has as much sugar and high fructose corn syrup as soda!” said Christian Ledesma, who also serves at the school’s health coordinator. He worked with two advocacy groups to replace the milk. “In my mind, the chocolate milk was gone the next day,” he said. “That’s how fast it seemed.”

The school has grown in popularity with the community since it opened. Over the past two years, P.S. 244 received over 400 applications per year to fill 125 kindergarten spots. This year, it received 650 applications.

Since many of the students come from Chinese, Indian, or Muslim backgrounds, they are accustomed to a predominantly vegetarian diet at home, said the school’s parent coordinator. Riva, a third-grade student at P.S. 244 who said she hasn’t gotten sick since becoming a student at P.S. 244, doesn’t see much of a stretch between what she eats at home and what she eats in the school’s cafeteria. “In China, they serve almost the same kind of food as here,” Riva said.

“The vast majority of parents are on board,” Groff added. “Some are in the mindset of, ‘My kid will only eat those certain things,’ but when kids see their friends eating things, when they’re immersed in it, they’ll try it.”

Adopting a vegetarian menu at P.S. 244 required the support of community and advocacy groups like the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food. The non-profit introduces plant-based foods and nutrition education in schools. Amie Hamlin, the executive director of the organization, said having a vegetarian school in New York City was her idea. “I asked the school first, ‘Would you consider it?’ The whole purpose of that school is health and fitness—The Active Learning Elementary School.”

Hamlin recognizes that vegetarian diets are not always healthier, especially if they are cheese-based. “The reason P.S. 244 is a healthier menu is because half of the time, entrees are vegan,” she said. Acquiring accurate data on the nutritional value of school food is challenging, she said, because school surveys do not often ask the right questions. Asking if schools offer vegan or vegetarian options doesn’t provide much clarity.

Because all schools offer peanut butter and jelly, cheese sandwiches, or pizza, there are usually vegetarian and vegan options available. But if students select vegan options, Hamlin says, like brown rice, broccoli, and oranges, they are missing an essential component of a meal: the entrée. “The real question is, ‘Do you have a vegan hot entrée?’” Hamlin said. Diet, Hamlin believes, is important for student attendance, student concentration, and student behavior. “When kids eat a totally junky diet, they can’t concentrate as much,” she said.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the national program for school food, introduced new standards for healthier meals during the 2012-2013 school year. A year later, news outletsreported that 524 schools (about 1.5 percent of those registered for federal subsidies) were dropping out of the national program because of cost. In other words, the cost of providing healthier meals outweighed the demand. If schools chose to opt out, and didn’t follow the new standards, they wouldn’t be reimbursed for free or low-cost meals. But most of the schools did meet the new standards.

When P.S. 244 first turned vegetarian, it did cost them a little more, said Lalita Kovvuri, the school’s parent coordinator. “But introducing a vegetarian option city-wide might have gotten those costs down,” she said.

Hamlin said it doesn’t cost schools more to provide vegetarian meals. “If it did, schools wouldn’t be able to do it,” she said, in an email correspondence. “All they are doing is replacing meat with beans or tofu. Both cheap, and beans are available through the commodities program, which means essentially free.” She added that because cheese, fruits and vegetables are on all menus, there is no cost differential for those foods.

Cafeterias aren’t the only place where schools are trying to improve nutrition. At P.S. 216 in Brooklyn, Principal Arturo Toscanini has his kindergarten through fifth graders grow a vegetable each month and then prepare a meal from it. The program, the Edible Schoolyard NYC, is run by a non-profit of the same name in two schools in New York City—P.S. 216 and P.S. 7 Samuel Stern in Harlem. In Brooklyn, the program grew out of a classroom and moved into a greenhouse funded by the school district. The greenhouse sits behind the school building on a half-acre organic farm that used to be a parking lot.

Liza Engelberg, the program’s education director, looks over the farm with pride. Plants are sprouting in neat rows marked by labels on sticks. Even thyme and magnolia have been planted to ensure the students have access to a diverse garden. The greenhouse includes a roomy, colorful kitchen and an office where Engelberg and her staff—made up of four teachers—work.

Each of the school’s 600 children cooks one dish a month in the greenhouse kitchen. The recipes change with the season. In the winter, for instance, students made soups. Now that spring is approaching, they are switching to bean dip. “Our focus is on seasonal, locally grown food,” said Engelberg.

“Eighty-seven percent of the kids try every recipe because they are attached to it,” said Engelberg. And almost all of those who try the food end up liking it, she added.

The edible schoolyard has no relationship with the school’s cafeteria. The idea is to teach children about the impact of farming and food choices. The kids, Engelberg said, are now calling it their “food footprint.” But since the children only cook what they grow, the recipes are both vegetarian and vegan. “We are thinking of having chickens so we can add eggs,” said Engelberg. She doesn’t readily see how poultry or meat could be a part of the project, but she admits that as a staff, they “do have conversations about it.”

“We are not demonizing other kinds of food,” said Engelberg, referring to children eating poultry and meat at home. She said she realizes the challenges public schools face, especially when so many children live in temporary housing and have little or no access to healthy food. “We try and entice them to eat healthy as much as possible,” she said.

She also said the curriculum is aligned to the Common Core, the new education standards being introduced in schools across the country. By that she means that the process of planting, nurturing, picking and cooking a fruit, vegetable or herb teaches students useful lessons in science, social studies, math and even literacy. When they farm they learn the science of plants and seasons, Engelberg said, while cooking can be a mathematical process. They include history by teaching about the “three sisters,” a Native American tradition of growing maize, squash and certain kinds of beans. “And reading a recipe and understanding it is about literacy,” she added.

This idea of using food or diet to teach larger lessons about health, environment and treatment of animals is an essential part of schools’ attempts to introduce and promote vegetarian meals. Two private schools slated to open in the fall of 2015—Simple Awakenings New York and the Solutionary School—are centered on the idea of “humane education.” Although New York State Law stipulates that schools teach humane education, it seems to be restricted to the treatment of non-human animals.

These schools, however, define the term broadly. “They’ve got to get people away from thinking that humane education is just about furry animals,” said Bill Gladstone, educational consultant for the Solutionary School. The school’s curriculum is still being drafted and Gladstone said teachers will focus on “environmental stewardship, cultural exchange, human rights, and animal protection.”

Simple Awakenings, on the other hand, is based on the Sanskrit concept of Sattva, or mindfulness. Kala Estrella, the school’s 26-year-old founder, envisions an approach that includes a “vegan/vegetarian diet, child-centered, play-based activities, attention to environment, and a compassionate approach with others and with oneself.”

Science is also becoming increasingly accommodating of vegetarian and vegan choices. The American Dietetic Association reports studies that show vegetarians have lower cholesterol levels, blood pressure, hypertension and even lower risk of contracting type 2 diabetes. The American Academy of Pediatrics is more cautious. It warns that nutritional balance is hardest when dairy products are absent altogether. Despite the intake of fruits, vegetables, cereals and legumes, they say strict vegetarians will likely need calcium supplements and pre-prepared food that is fortified with certain vitamins.

Dr. Sharon Akabas, the director of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University, believes it is dangerous to automatically associate vegetarianism or veganism with healthy. “You can be a Twinkie vegetarian,” Akabas said. She insists that children should be visiting the pediatrician at least once a year, especially if they are following a vegetarian or vegan diet.

There is one main concern for growing children, Akabas says. Parents must ensure that the number of calories in their child’s diet is sufficient. “The challenges are greater with veganism, because you’ve removed the food groups with vitamin B12 and calcium, and there can be less iron,” Akabas said. But she isn’t too concerned about the menu at P.S. 244, which doesn’t offer junk food. “The worst worry is there’s some kind of deficiency going on that might compromise growth or ability to focus. In general, if a kid is getting enough calories that aren’t coming from junk food, you don’t have to micro-manage the choices,” she said.

Some New York City schools are paying attention to the research supporting a vegetarian diet. The Office of School Food told school-stories.org that they are receiving more and more inquiries from schools asking how the schools can “promote vegetarian choices on the menu.”

It’s unclear if more schools will follow the route taken by P.S. 244. But students at the Flushing school aren’t complaining about their school’s decision to promote fitness and a plant-based diet. “We exercise a lot here, and we always go outside when it’s sunny,” said Andy, an 8-year-old third grader at P.S. 244. He shared that his class’ running club—the Mighty Milers—receives 50 books for the school if his team achieves an average of one mile per student. “In other schools they get fake meat, they even sell candy,” he said, shaking his head. “They want you to pay money for that stuff. For sugar!”

After studying political science and Spanish at U.C. Berkeley, Annette Konoske-Graf moved to Miami, Florida, where she taught ninth and tenth-grade literature in Little Haiti. She is now at Columbia Journalism School.

Aparna Allrui is a freelance print and radio reporter. Originally from India, she is currently ​based in New York, finishing up a graduate degree in journalism at Columbia University.

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We seek so ardently to “live in the moment” that most of us spend most of our waking hours working fervently to ensure as little surprise or originality will ever filter into our compartmentalized existences.

And we call the prophets mad.

One of the purposes of this section of the site is to allow you to learn new and creative ways to “live outside the box”. You want the best life has to offer, you will have to learn new things, thats simple logic, that which is simple logic is best. The hardest thing about simple logic is the doing, this is why self help sections of the bookstore/library are huge. Reading a self help book has become the practice. What you need to realize is that the practice must be what the book suggests, not simply reading book after book, seminar after seminar. At some point you must DO.

Let it be said, let it be done, enjoy this section and may the very best come your way as you desire and are ready!

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Thus far on my ride, I have had many stories about many things. None make me so sad as those in which little children are placed on medication simply because they are very active. It begs the question, when exactly are we supposed to be active, and if not as a little child, when?
That you as a parent feel over burdened and unable to cope with your child, who, as any animal in the animal kingdom, will continually seek attention from its parent[s]. Should this attention seeking, others will call it love, but they are silly, should this attention seeking and almost GENETIC need to be guided by those who act as though they are raising them give rise to being doped on opiate like drugs, we must wonder where our society has turned to for its wisdom.
IN light of this, I now turn to Dr. Professor Szasz, also co-founder of the CCHR.

Thus far on my ride, I have had many stories about many things. None make me so sad as those in which little children are placed on medication simply because they are very active. It begs the question, when exactly are we supposed to be active, and if not as a little child, when?
That you as a parent feel over burdened and unable to cope with your child, who, as any animal in the animal kingdom, will continually seek attention from its parent[s]. Should this attention seeking, others will call it love, but they are silly, should this attention seeking and almost GENETIC need to be guided by those who act as though they are raising them give rise to being doped on opiate like drugs, we must wonder where our society has turned to for its wisdom.
IN light of this, I now turn to Dr. Professor Szasz, also co-founder of the CCHR.

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With a background in yoga it has always made sense to me following Ayurveda as a great health guidance. Specially in times like today when we have so much available information, sometimes is hard to know what to do, how to best take care of our health. My advice is: do your research! Read, learn, investigate, ask, but most than all, experiment. Discover what your body needs and wants, how it works. Your body is different than mine, different than any other, so it has very individual and personal needs, only YOU can know what YOU need to be healthy…

That being said, Ayurveda works for me precisely because it relies on understanding each entity as unique, each living creature as one of a kind and in constant transformation. So not only you are different from anyone else, you are also different today, this morning, than you were yesterday or will be by this evening. Then it becomes obvious, you need to pay attention, to be here right now and live this moment. For taking care of your health, you must pay attention to how you are feeling moment by moment and act accordingly. Then, Ayurveda relies on habits, on the daily life; what a better way to prevent instead of fixing, even more, to make sure we’re allowing our body to express itself fully, letting our life energy flow freely.

Here’s an easy basic morning routine that will help balance your body and promote self awareness…
Wake up early, before sunrise!
From 2 am to 6 am it’s vata time in terms of energy in the atmosphere. Everything around and inside us begin to wake, to move and it’s a good idea filling yourself with this refreshing energy. Go out, breathe the morning air, fill up your lungs, your eyes with the peaceful dawn.

Drink 2 to 4 cups of luke warm water with a little bit of lime or lemon.
This will not only hydrate your body but also stimulate your internal organs, flush your kidneys and promote cleansing of the bowels. Lime juice is highly alkaline and filled with vitamins and minerals too.

Splash your face with fresh water to rehydrate the skin, remove accumulated heat from the eyes and stimulate your nervous system. Move your eyes around, from side to side, up and down, gentle circles and so forth.

Brush your teeth with natural toothpaste, avoid chemicals and harsh ingredients and scrape your tongue to remove toxins and stimulate your digestive tract and taste buds. The tongue is a good indicator of your whole digestive tract, pay attention to the appearance your tongue, any accumulations on the surface, any weird colors or shapes. You can find tongue scrapers in most health stores or you can use a spoon, scrape about ten times from back to front until you have removed any thick yucky stuff. Then rinse your mouth with warm olive or sesame oil, swish the oil around for two, three minutes and spit, don’t swallow! With your index finger gently massage your gums to stimulate and lubricate the tissues.

Now massage your ears and keep on massaging the rest of your face. You can do a dry massage but if you have the time is a good idea using a little oil that will nourish your skin and lubricate the tissues to a cellular level. For the face light oils like almond, sunflower or camelia are great. Then move on to the scalp, coconut oil is great for the hair. In Ayurveda there is an oil blend called Brahmi oil that is wonderful for the head and hair and that helps to clear the mind, relax the senses and induce meditation. Then massage the rest of your body. Sesame, coconut, olive and sunflower oils and all very good options. Stay away from mineral oil and artificial fragrances, I like to get my oils on the food section of the supermarket, feed your skin with natural food=]

Finish with a bath or shower and a fresh, whole, healthy breakfast. Remember breakfast is the most important meal of the day so don’t skip it! However keep it light and of easy digestion; a smoothie is always a great idea, a green juice too or if you want something more consistent how about some muesli or granola with almond milk….

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A. I am Posting this as a -WORK IN PROGRESS- When this post is finally done, I will remove this header, until that time, know that more is coming, based on the depth and breadth of this singular map to survival, it will take time, but, you can get started now=] Should the Zombie Apocalypse happen before this text is removed, all bets are off and you are on your own… Godspeed, the future of humanity is up to you now.

P.S., a sword is better than a gun in the long run and if it smells real funny, best not to eat it even if you are hungry…

We ask that you give us a moment of your time to give you some motivation that may seem…. odd at best, though with the advent of a new iPhone app to help you run called running zombies or something, who knows, I may not be as odd as I thought!

Its all about motivation and in that vein, by only using that which we know and love in order to have it be easily shared with you the reader, we feel we can be of service to you.

We feel that perhaps the usual suspects of getting in shape are no longer exerting their once powerful pull on you and that a bit more is needed. Not a bit more, thats not right, a bit different…=]

Bicycle Touring and the Zombie Apocalypse

Part 1, making it all believable enough that it will indeed act as a positive motivational force.

Now, before you perchance find yourself scoffing and guffawing, please, indulge us a few of your precious moments to more fully flesh out this idea for you.

Many of you have some belief in the idea or thought concept of the Zombie Apocalypse, and yes, this will be as marginally long winded as I am able to make it, my apologies, I do of course promise that it will be interesting, or at least as interesting as it seems to me with a couple glasses of wine and some wacky tabacky will allow for… which upon this re-editing I have since stopped doing both precisely in order to reach ever higher levels of zombie escaping and ass kicking power. More on this later in the mental sharpening section…

Zombie movies are one of the more popular genre of our collective movie watching global community as seen in this partial list from WIKIPEDIA. This being the case, lets tap into this collective consciousness and make something of our lives now beyond simply being entertained for one to two hours at a time in front of the ‘Tele’ or Silver Screen.

Why this way of getting in shape may actually have some unfortunate reality behind it…

For starters, as mentioned just 4 lines up, er.. 5 lines, we see a veritable cornucopia of films and television shows dealing with and including zombies. Books, pamphlets, websites, even the U.S. Government Center for Disease Control has an entire section on Zombies! I’d completely forgot the whole realm of games that deal with zombies and that every other game has a damn zombie level [more believers]!

As we all know that which you believe will eventually come to pass, and it seems that a majority of the planet is stoked on and kind of, in a way, actually believes in Zombies… hmmmmmmmmmm… According to the science behind Physics, that doesn’t bode well for a walker free future!

Now add in all the little odds and ends you pick up about the goings on in our goverment with weapons research, and the overall fact that more money is being spent on weapons development and war than anything else IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, super soldier programs, biological and chemical warfare…

We see corporations are getting more and more massive, constantly buying up subsidiaries and getting its most heinous acts of crime against man and humanity lost in the never ending corridors of purposeful beaucratic slop, much like in the “Resident Evil” series’ Umbrella Corporation.

Monsanto, making Genetically modified Insects, fish, plants including vegetables and embarking on transgressions against nature that boggle the mind, such as teaming up with the Government of the United States to engineer a plant seed that is good for only ONE cycle, all seed from the subsequent generations of this seed will be rendered sterile. That this is only one of such many corporations like it in and around the world… All that tampering with genes will invariably bring about something not good for us, hasn’t it always in the past!

Taking in all of this and coupling it with the scientific maxim, or the 4th Law of Thermodynamics, a.k.a. Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”, we see the opportunity for some very serious happenings down the line that may or may not be of the degree and scale of a Resident Evil, Walking Dead scenario.

So, what does all this have to do with my workout?

Good question… here’s a “For Instance”. How often do you walk up a flight of stairs as quickly as you can and do you ever do it backwards?

Many of you will say, “never”, and then immediately think, “Why in Gods name would I, I mean, perfectly good elevators/escalators, why wouldn’t I use them!”.

Now as to the second part, the walking backwards, many of you will simply look at me undoubtedly dumbfounded and yet, do you know the amount of strength that comes from training in such a manner, the reflexes which are honed and sharpened to a level that you will not even think possible simply because you have never even thought of doing this?

And yet, how often does a person lose their grip on the stairs when running from the undead and this proves their undoing! How many more will die because they were unable to turn around and fire off the requisite rounds into said zombies skull on the stairs simply because they could not execute a turn while going up stairs?

The Apocalypse will not be powered with electricity or oil, gas, etc, there will be no elevators, bullets will be in short supply and high demand, gas, what you can find will be in many stages of degradation and may or may not actually be able to even com-bust, and even then, who knows if streets will be passable. No my friend, this apocalypse will be powered by you, ergo, you must come to rely on the most sophisticated and advanced piece of machinery known to man… himself.

The exercises put forth will be mostly of the mind allowing the body to follow. We are seeking powerful minds here, new neural pathways and breaking new ground so to speak in your training regimen. In most of the training we do, even when we think we are training the body, it is the mind that is being trained first and foremost, after all, think of how excited you are to even go to the gym most times…. The power lies in the MIND.

In using the “Apocalypse” as a method of motivation, you will feel totally fine in doing completely new exercises that you may have never thought of. In doing so, you will begin to use new muscles and vis-a-vis new pathways in your mind to move about in turn bring on a whole new level of body conditioning and strength. Also, there is something to this as we will show you in a bit.

Coupled with the fact you have a fun goal to ascribe your every heart pounding, sweat drenching moment, this program will be much easier to adhere to. In using the whimsical idea that zombies may one day come to be a reality, some part of you will push just a little harder, for now all of this becomes more tangible to you. You aren’t merely looking to be in shape for a loved one or for a potential loved one, no, you are rising above this, you have a purpose that pits you against yourself in an epic story of survival. The Human Race depends upon YOU!

You will be learning to be hard, not just in the flesh, which may in fact continue to to be chubby and perchance even outright fat, but in the mind, your mind, which regardless of who you are when you start, you will become strong in the mind as you progress and this is what makes the difference in whatever world you find yourself. Be it riddled with zombies or your co-workers who may as well be zombies.

You become something that is viable in the world and able to make a more positive contribution to it, you come to respect yourself which is the basis for everything in your life.

FORMAT

We will be using a multiple section format in this article to bring this all together for you as simply as possible as it is fairly diverse. I’m seeking to help you undergo a complete transformation of the body and as mentioned, most importantly, the mind. All links that are highlighted in that mustardy-orange-yellow color are CLICKABLE, they will give you more information and I highly advise you read them as this is written with them having been read as a part of the plan.

The sections will be, Ahem!:

0. Stretching 101 and beyond.

1. Bicycles and Bicycle Touring.

2. Breathing.

3. Running; to include how to “mix it up” and first aid for running injuries.

4. Strength Training.

5. Meditation.

6. Diet.

6/a. Fasting.

7. Simple Exercises to Improve Hand/Eye Coordination.

8. Mental Sharpening, or, Going Ninja.

9. Medicine.

10. Books that never grow dull.

10. Whatever else I can think of that would be worthy to help you on your way!

A lot of this is based in martial arts, spirituality, Navy days, barefoot training and simple observation of the world around me and what I see people dong that really helps them move forward. I will do my very best to make this as comprehensive as possible for you without making it impossible to implement. Of course, as with anything, it is ultimately up to you. You must be your own Cheerleader/Drill Instructor/Medical Doctor/Nutritionist/Herbologist/MacGyver/Ninja/ET CETERA. Quite simply put…”You must be the change you wish to see.”.

Or else you will get eaten and or turned into a walker and I will have to take you down personally. Enjoy=]

General Guidlines:

1. Do not always use music when working out. Music has been show to give a 5 percent performance increase minimum, for some up to 15 percent, I’m not sure how this is tallied, but then, I’m not a scientist, I simply do or do not believe. This I whole heartedly believe, and since this will be a world in which energy is very difficult to come by, even if you have solar system [stuff breaks down like its job was to break down!], we wouldn’t want our zombie escapes to be dependent upon a soundtrack!

2. If at any time you feel sharp pains, and the apocalypse hasn’t started yet, I need you to stop and really look at the situation and what you are doing. There should be no sharp pains! They are the beginning of injury, injury means you wont be training, not training is the beginning of a zombie in the making. No sharp pains! I always recommend seeing a trainer if you are having troubles, or a Chinese medicine Doctor with at least 4 years of experience OUTSIDE of their schooling.

3. A dull ache can be the sign of a potential injury or that you are just tired, a lot of these muscles may be being used for the first time even if you are quite athletic [barefoot running for example], do not power through. Soreness is to be expected and yet it must always be REspected as well.

4. In all of this, I do not want you to use ICE for anything ever on your body. I explained below in the running section. Save ice for your drinks.

5. ALWAYS STRETCH. Of course before your workouts is demanded, but when you are watching your favorite zombie movie, when in the office, whenever it is you do what you do, if you have a moment, use it to stretch, always be ready by limbering the body. Anything is only as strong as its ability to bend. This is science, spirituality, philosophy, it simply makes sense. If it is a mandatory ingredient for Master Bruce Lee, so shall it be for you… KNOW THAT FOR EVERYTHING HERE, STRETCHING IS A FUNDAMENTAL AND INESCAPABLE INGREDIENT! It is and always shall be – the foundation upon which you build your new you.

6. The Dan Tien is gong to be of crucial import as this is the basis for all power as we train and meditate. I understand that there may be other thoughts and methids, I prefer to use this and hope you will make your training complete by observing it as well. The Dan Tien as best I can discern is a space that, if you take yor hand, hold your fingers together and straight, place your pointer finger in your belly button, the tip of the piny finger will mark the location of the Dan Tien, of course, you would then have to go three D with the measurement and go into the body for its exact location. Depending on your current knowledge and practice, one could reasonably argue for use of the Chakras as a guide. if this rings truer with you than the Dan Tien, that is fine, I am here only to help you simply do something different from the norm. It is, in my humble opinion, more fitting to use the Dan Tien as this is more geared to what you are training for, being Ninja.

7. One of the most difficult things about all this is that you will be responsible for training yourself. Something, which from an early age we are trained not to do, will be very difficult indeed. We are taught to walk, to talk, how to think, what to think, how to behave etc. So now, taking the time to pick yourself up and push yourself both mentally and physically will be most challenging. It is in fact one of the reasons that you may be unhappy with your overall station in life. We all seek the easy way out and do not pay heed to the weakness of the mind. Know this as you move forward in this training. You will have to do your exercises to failure, all of them. You must go till you drop, rest, and go some more. That’s how one becomes strong. When you first learned to walk, you kept at it, though you were a fumbling package of nonsense with the stability of a lush with motor skills to match! You must always be trying, always. I refer now to lines from The Blues Traveler, “No such things as failure in he who keeps trying, coasting at bottom is the only disgrace..”. No truer words spoken, I need you to train NOW as thought the situation is already real. If you cannot push yourself now, do not look to be able to push yourself later.

8. You will find yourself feeling the need to compete with other survivors. I ask that you meditate on this and the following. There is strength in numbers, in the movies cooperation seems to be a key, and it is the right thing to do according to current scientific theory about the early humans who would later move on to dominate and become what we are today. Cooperation is now being touted as one of the most powerful “tools” they had at their disposal. Further, when we look at societies that are based on competition and dominance of peace loving cultures, i.e., societies that preach competition as a superior form of living, they have all tumbled. Historically speaking. If we look to the Tao Te Ching, we see the age old sage wisdom, “He who lives by the sword, so shall he die by the sword.”.

It may be hard at first to believe this, so i would like you to start putting it into play now, that way you will be well versed in group dynamics, acceptance and everything else necessary to begin building a society.

Lastly, read through this article from stem to stern once or twice and then begin in earnest, and of course, ENJOY!

Section 0 – Learning to go with flow, to bend, to be…. NINJA!

This is the singular most important section outside of diet, which is why it is the zero section. Diet has taken its place where it has as many people refuse to even consider changing their diets and therefore, we will stick to something that is more palatable and equally as important for the world that is coming up and that you are training for.

If you notice your initial reaction to the thought of actually getting into a stretch program, there in lies your first look at why this is so vitally important. Your mind is weak. Now you must make it strong and I will give you a laundry list of reasons why.

1. Many scientific theories tie in ability to stretch and ability to survive into old age.

2. The strongest people in the world, I speak to fighting capability hand to hand, are usually extremely flexible as well.

3. Aesop, you know, the gentleman who wrote us those all important stories like the Turtle and the Rabbit [Tortoise and Hare], also did many on the important of flexibility, one such dealt with a mighty oak and a slender reed each undergoing a tremendous storm. of course, prior to said storm, the Oak was calling the reed week and after the storm, the reed was explaining that it survived due to its ability to bend, where as the Mighty Oak was now split in two.

4. It is a meditative practice of its own and is therefore good for your inner peace.

5. It keeps your internal organs supple and in the correct position, further, it massages them and keeps them healthy. Your internal organs are not meant to be in one fixed place unmovable from birth to death. They must be taken care of as any other part of the body. Stretching does that.

6. If you choose Yoga or some group stretch class, you will find like minded people to help you when the rubber meets the road. Further, if you are a guy who is a tough guy and does not believe in this, there are usually attractive women at yoga classes. These women will go for the guy who tries his best in class. What more do yo need tough guys?

So, now we begin with some simple yet powerful stretches which by no means make up a complete series, so you WILL have to do further research on your own, and I do this on purpose. A, It will take you to other websites and greater knowledge, you will be able to truly learn and understand a subject, get to “know it” if you will, and that is what I am aiming for in all of this. For yo to be your own Student and Master, this is what will give yo the best edge in the world you are now training for.

Stretches –

Bending at Waist – Seems so easy, yet I have met so many, even apparently healthy folks who cannot touch their toes without bending their knees! You want to focus on really bending from the waist. Keep your core engaged AT ALL TIMES. Go slowly, there is no rush. Bend as far as you are able without bending your knees. Again, keep your core engaged at all times. Breath deeply, as you exhale, go a little deeper into your stretch. Hold for a few breaths, come up, shake out, and repeat.

Same as above sitting on the floor – Same thing. Bend from the waist, go deeper on exhales, go slowly, keep core engaged at all times.

One leg Behind Back – Standing on one leg, bring your calf to the back of the thigh on which ever leg is not keeping yo standing. Hold it, your foot/shin, with your hands and try a variety of foot positions and angles.

Holding One Leg – While seemingly very easy, it is actually quite difficult. You must balance on one leg, slowly move your other leg up, hold it with your hand, and there are many ways to do this, you can hold your big tow with your pointer and middle fingers – a yoga style stretch, with your whole hand on the inside of your leg or on the outside, try them all as each brings about a different feel.

Hands Behind Back – This is a great chest opener and is also good for the aspiring protester. One hand will be folded down/back and up, so your lower hand will end up in the center of your back over your spine, the other hand/arm, will be up/over and back. The goal is to get your hands together in the mid back and really use this stretch to open the chest and upper body, also promoted strength gain. IF YOU CANT bring your hands together, use a small rag or towel. This will allow you to train your mind that the hands are meant to be holding each other, more importantly,m it activates the stretch in a much different way, different neurons, this is a very active stretch, not passive. Lastly, you can creep your hands along the towel towards one another and will eventually not need them any more.

XingYi Stretches – under construction –

Now we begin… A BIKE.

First, I would like for you to get a bike or pull the unused bike out of your garage and get it tuned up. During the tune up, pay a little extra to get some lessons on how to properly maintain a bike. It’s the Zombie Apocalypse, cars, gas, all that stuff will be most difficult to A. come by, B. fix and C. etc etc etc. The reason this is first is that it will be your most reliable means of transportation. Above all, you have to be able to move quicker than a walking or running pace, this is my reasoning for putting bikes first.

Bikes are truly a dime a dozen, which is not cheapen them by any stretch of our imaginations, but to truly drive the point home that in a post apocalyptic world one must be most accustomed to working and using that which is most readily available…. in this case the Bike. Please check out the WorldoMeters Bicycle page for a host of statistics that will literally shock and amaze you and give a huge amount of credence to what you are reading. The bike will be a key component to your long term survival strategy.

For this to work well for you, you must be well versed in how to use the bike and fix it…. ON YOUR OWN. One important tip is this. If you find a bike and it has flat tires and you cannot find a new tube, patch kit, pump, what have you, stuff the tire with cloth or grass, or some other suitable material and keep on trucking, unless of course we are dealing with fast zombies, then… good luck.

The best bike as far as I can tell would be a hard tail, solid fork front mountain bike or Xtracycle. The less fine machinery and parts to go bad the better, the sturdier the better.

Now, whoever you are, you now know how to fix a bike and are riding daily. I understand that the apocalypse hasn’t happened yet and you are still at your day job. Not a problem. Start riding to work, on the weekends do long rides, and continue to increase your distances and especially your endurance. These are zombies, they feel nothing, you must be able to go for a long time if there is a horde coming from behind, you must have enough energy to dodge and weave for the stragglers that will come from the front.

If by chance you live close to Tijuana, Mexico, you are in a fantastic position to learn some very specific moves that will allow you to basically ride through an entire bloodthirsty horde and emerge unscathed. To this day I sometimes look back and wonder how exactly I was able to make, and yet, how happy I am that I did, for I gained a very important piece of mental luggage – FEARLESSNESS. So, in using your rides to work and extended rides, you begin to gain the needed stamina and strength to make it happen. By riding through cities, you learn the way, the art of not being flattened which someday, lets hope it never comes, will be your way of not being bitten and depending on the story line you are following, being scratched.

Other methods of riding to prepare and have a proper blast while doing so that we feel are best when used with the above training as well.

CycloCross training is one of the more useful bike sports to train in as it will really give you the skills you need to get out of tricky situations…

For instance, there you are cruising and next thing you know, BAM! Dead bodies, wrecked cars, rubble, flipped tanks, downed copters etc., all over the place. Well you wont be able to ride over them, enter cyclocross racing to see you through!

Lastly in the biking section, I would like you to begin going on longer rides. Taking a day and even weekends and longer. Camping, making fires, cooking your own food in the wild and generally learning what the basics are that you will need to be long term on a bicycle. Lucky you I already have an entire section of this website devoted to that – Bicycle Touring. Bicycle touring will be paramount as you will have to begin living the life of a nomad until you find a place or group that is able to carve out a section of land that can be safe. Until such a time, you must be prepared to not only be on the move, but be on the move with a fairly often, if not daily pace. There is no better way than bicycle touring. Coming to terms with this now will have you properly prepared and all will be ready in advance. When I started my ride I left with 140 pounds of gear and clothes, I am now down to 70-, people travel with much less than I. learn to do things when it is easy, so when life becomes hard, you already know. What is harder, learning to change a flat tire in the comfort of your own driveway or on the side of a zombie infested road? This is not rocket science, but if you never start, you will never know!

Lastly, if you never have done a tour, you find yourself being focused to focus though tired, in the rain, dehydrated and ready to give up, but you cant. You are riding on the shoulder of a road as you have been for the last 8 hours and 18 wheelers are whizzing by you at 80mph. Though you are at wits end, you MUST REMAIN FOCUSED! If someone swerves to close to you, you do not have recourse to be angry at them, your yells will fade into the oblivion of the open road, it is up to you to take care of you effectively. Yelling solves nothing, responding well makes all the difference.

You will learn to be a Ninja as far as response, you will learn to listen to your “gut” instinct. How many times have I had a huge urge to pull off the road and in doing so, saved my life. This is a powerful transformer of ignorance and years of civilized breeding which turn you weak in the mind and in your very nature.

Are you diggin how this is working? You will, be a survivor….. You W I L L.

Part 2 – Building your foundation when not biking.

Part 2/A –

Your breathing, because once you stop breathing, you become one of them!

The proper way of breathing while doing anything is of paramount import. For starters, Breathing is where the magic happens in you the human being. You can go days without water, more days without food and for the best of us, according to The Guiness Book of World Records is… 22 minutes even! Holy Iron Lung Batman!

So we see that time is measured in minutes and nothing more. As we dig deeper into the mystery of breathing we see that there are many methods and ideas when it comes to what is the best way to do so. Belly breathing, 3 part Ujji Pranayama of the Yogis and my personal favorite, the Microcosmic Orbit.

It is up to you to pick one and stick with it. My choice was made largely for me as it was part of my Kung Fu training. As i was getting one on one attention with it and the philosophy behind it, it was natural for me to adopt it. It is such a boon to my everything I do, from running, to stress control, that I HIGHLY recommend and urge you to find a method that is time tested and taught by someone of knowledge. Further, it allows you to use your body properly. As a car must have a clean air-filter and the correct bends and twists in its air intake system, so must the human body which is INFINITELY more complex than a car have the same. It is up to you to seek this out, it is too complex for ME to teach as I simply do not know it even close to well enough, I point you in the direction by letting you know it exists and is of the highest value, after all, you will last roughly one minute without it=]

Part 2/B – RUNNING[there is no real numbering scheme, I just like how it looks… keep reading=]

Running, both near and far, fast and slow…

This is one of the most important factors as it means the difference between life and death in every single zombie flick I have seen to date. Further, it has been the difference of life and death in any situation where there is a “prey” and a “hunter”. The key here is to last long enough in this brave new world to become a hunter. In doing this, you will undoubtably go through a period of being prey, and even the most experienced hunter will at times find him/herself prey.

The one thing a human being has on nearly ALL other animals is its ability to run long distance without burning out. if we look at a majority of other animals, they all seem to, at some point, begin panting. Once this happens they begin a downward slide of decreased performance ultimately ending in the need to stop. What sets us apart, we sweat. We are water cooled and one of the very few animals that has this adaptation. You will now begin using it to your advantage.

I would like you to star by doing some basic barefoot running. Again, luckily for you, I have an entire beginner program set up with all the necessary ideas and science behind why this is so very important. This will introduce you to the overall idea of running and proper form regardless what your are wearing. It is most important that this be the foundation for your training as you will be doing A LOT of running, to suddenly come down with cramps, aches and pains will not serve you in this new world. Take the time to train properly and SLOWLY to ensure success and survival!

You may be wondering why, when I have perfectly good trainers/running shoes, would I bother to learn to run barefoot?

Well my friend, there are two very important considerations. One, there will no longer be running shoe manufacturers of any kind… at all, anywhere. And if there were, how would they be delivered. So, this initial complaint is now a moot point. moving on…

Even though you have running shoes, it does not mean that you are a good runner. And to this I am speaking directly to the physiognomy of the body, how it is made. Your body is a machine, albeit one of the most complex ones on the planet, but a machine none-the-less, it works in a specific way, adheres to our accepted notions of physics, the laws of gravity et-cetera and has tried and true methods for for bringing out the best in it. The kinetic chain of what you are doing in running is very important as it is in anything you do. With running you get to see just how off the kinetic chain for many of us actually is. Lets briefly look at the kinetic chain here before we continue so we have a greater idea of what it is we are doing.

It must be fed certain things, and used in a certain way for optimum performance. this is an accepted fact, and it is even accepted by you though you may not consciously realize it, there is a reason why you automatically respect Olympic athletes, professional athletes, mercenaries etc. They have all mastered their bodies and you know they did it in a certain way as they all had trainers and you know this. So now I am your trainer for running in a world where you will not have access to what you want, but, thank god, if you are wise, you will learn to excel with what you have been given from birth.

Running barefoot takes a lot of time to build up to as the entire focus of your body and ergo the musculature, bones, everything changes. Since we are dealing with many small bones and muscles, these will take time to re attenuate themselves to this new and correct way of being. PLEASE, GIVE THIS TIME. I would say that the average person living and working in daily life will need at least 3-6 months of daily training before reaching an equivalent level of running capability. Good news is, once you have achieved this level, you will even use your current heel padded shoes correctly.

Two shoes, footwear that can help you are Luna’s, made by Barefoot Ted McDonald and Vibrams, an idea by Barefoot Ted and made by the Vibram Corporation.

Actual running training once you have attenuated your body and feet to this correct way of running:

Bruce Lee was said to run at least 2 miles and at comfortable jog per day. In being in the Health Club business, the most fit elderly were the ones who continued to run. It is a key supplement and especially with all the biking you will be doing, it will help to ensure proper bone density, fluidity of internal organs – i.e., your organs are not “stuck” in place which leads to many difficulties and diseases, health of colon and proper bowel movements, clarity, happiness and of course, the ability to get away from zombies.

We will start by alternating your runs between slow and steady for distance and short and fast with rests in between sets for strength and speed.

As you progress on both paths, and we will keep this easy and relatively simple, you will simply increase the overall amount of time you do for either set, i.e., you will slowly increase your distance and speed with the long distance runs and with your sprint days.

There are specific ways to properly increase based upon body type and other factors, for our sake, we are using the slow and steady method with alternating weeks. For instance.

Week One will be slow and steady with an increase in distance. This will apply for both the speed and the long distance.

Week Two will see an increase in speed, very slight, for the distance that you are able to run in week one. These are very small increases, you must understand this or you will burn yourself out and worse, cause injury.

Vary your training back and forth until you have a good base and then begin training on different terrain. From trail running, to sand, city streets, at the gym on a treadmill to the local high-school track. By the way, the treadmill is an excellent place to get a great feel for your rhythm and speed, BUT, do not use this as your main source of running, nothing takes the place of supplying your own speed. With a treadmill you are keeping up, in the world, you are keeping up with a speed that you must supply, the difference, especially when being chased by walkers will become evident all to quickly.

Training must always be varied for the maximum result based upon what we are aiming for and that is not merely survival, but re establishing the human race in the face of a global disaster.

IMPORTANT TIP- When trail running and you come to a down hill, it is best to gallop. I guess this would apply to any running, especially some of the hills in Ensenada, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, etc., ok, any hill!

I know this may sound silly, but the force on the knee during a down hill exerts a huge amount of shearing action on the knee joint. This is b a d. We do not want shearing forces on our joints as this will cause long and short term injury. So, down hill we what, gallop. This is a technique i learned by watching footage of an old western in which a Samurai with a baby had somehow ended up in the wild west and was fighting the Cowboys and the Indians. Well, he had to run down a huge gravely hill, he did it in a gallop. I thought it silly as a 10 year old and fast forward lots of years found myself with a lot of pain during my trail runs which was greatly aggravated coming down hills. I remembered my Samurai and began to gallop. Took me a time to really get functional with it, and now I use it to my advantage and can build great speed. if you have trouble with it, take your time and remember to protect your joints always.

Stairs, oh my…..-

Why, because the elevators only work in the movies and why would you want to get yourself into a little metal box tethered by cables? My thoughts exactly we take the stairs. if there are the undead chasing us, we must take them quickly and be prepared to duck and jive with the best of them. This will be a great place for you to be ninja, or you will find your last call here. You can find stairs literally everywhere, you may not realize how prolific stairs are simply because your brain has tuned them out in favor of escalators and elevators, which is fine, but now its not. Begin by running your stairs as you would your slow and steady runs and your fast, sprint training.

Some days you will run up stairs for as long as you can possibly go and once you get to the top, you will jog back down to the bottom turn about and run back up again, do this as many times as you can and seek to have ever greater times/distances and focus on how you feel doing it, this will be your greatest gauge of your progress.

Remember, fast and slow. We also want to try and find varied sizes of stairs. The more mixing up you do, the better this will be for you and your body!

A final way of mixing up the stairs, for running, we will have the stairs make another appearance in total body strength training later, is Spinning. This is extremely dangerous and can lead to injuries! Do not simply jump into this one, go slowly at first until you get the hang of it. The primary focus of spinning is to focus and condition the mind. As you run up the stairs, you will at every 5th or 10th, your program, spins as you are still heading up, or down. PLEASE start out with this one slowly as the opportunity for broken ankles is HUGE! Save this for your advanced workouts when you are beginning to find the tedium of all this new material boring. By that point, your ankles, balance, mind and body should be ready for this.

MIXING IT UP IN GENERAL – Running –

In general, a mix up for running that will always be of service would be what?

C’mon, think here, whats happening in this new world, whats going on, you’re running, did you drop everything and just run? Probably not, you may have a machete, a can of food, a baby, I don’t know, but you have something I am sure. And something that you simply DO NOT wish to let go of..

So a good mix up would be adding weight while you run, right? Not only will this now activate different centers in the brain, but it will make you stronger as well. I’m sure many of you scoff at the idea that a three pound weight in your hand would do anything to advance your training. That’s only because you don’t understand. Hold that three pound weight for an entire hour long run and you are on to something!

So start running with a backpack and add small but steady weight to your runs, both the slow/steady ones and the fast. this will get your body and most importantly your mind used to having constraints while moving. Then you can star adding weights in various places. Heck, you can go hyper realistic and place things in the house like a water bottle and three pound weight and when the alarm goes off, you grab them and are out the door!

My reason for choosing the 3 pound weight is that it easily covers most smaller handguns and has enough weight to cover larger ones as well, see chart compliments of Mouseguns.

You know have a general idea of what can help to expand your running horizon. One of the key functions we are doing with this is making your brain accustomed to the change. Many runners go with as minimal gear as possible, choosing the lightest of everything from shoes to clothes. We are now putting the onus of comfortable running on conditioning of the mind, not money spent on clothes and gear. Does this make sense, if not, email me and we can discuss.

FURTHER MIXING-

You can also do things like running sideways, looks more like a sideways gallop, be very careful when you start this as obviously you can crack an ankle! This will really help build strength and when you are doing it will be, again, like a sideways gallop.

Run backwards, you laugh, but when you hit the speeds I have surprised my own self with, you see how useful a tool this can be, now add a gun and a few zombies who are quicker than the pack chasing you, they are catching up, turn, pop pop pop, turn, now you’re on to something.

Run with a big USED TIRE. This is a most powerful workout indeed! I don’t know if you have ever ran with a used tire, but dong so is a needed training instrument for two main reasons. First and foremost, it is ungainly, quickly becomes mentally draining to carry while running, focusing you ever more specifically on all of your core musculature and posture, which I may add is very important in this advanced training lest you start to do damage to yourself.

As you can see, I am pulling my tire, I got lucky and found ship waste with rope attached, this is equally as difficult as now you have an added drag resistance, especially in the sand. When I placed the tire around my neck to run, the rope added very slight drag, but, this did add an uneven balance factor that was a nice touch.

Secondly, you begin to get an idea for the scope of waste we currently take for granted in this world which is one of the foundational problems with our civilization which has led to the very real possibility of a Zombie Apocalypse which is why you are reading this. From this tire, I will be making a pair of huaraches, the sandals used by the Tarahumara.

Shuttle Runs-

For your fast days, I would like you to include shuttle runs. What a delightful and mind bogglingly painful exercise that once you break through the side splitting terror of it all, you will be bathed with endorphins that are usually reserved for a gun shot wound.

Set up plastic buckets, tricycles, set up stuff at intervals which are comfortable to you. So, you have a starting line and 10 yards out, a bucket, 10 more yards, another bucket and so on, as many as you like, I suggest at least 2 “stations”.

Now, get down in your runner position and bolt to the first bucket [or whatever, if you have a lazy dog who will not move nor mind you barreling towards it, fine, whatever you want], touch it and immediately run back to the starting line, touch it, run to the second bucket, touch it and back to the starting line. pass out, wake up, and repeat. Do this until you decide to stop, if you want to be ninja, you will go until you vomit. i have not done this yet, but know of people who have, it is up to you, its your apocalypse training right, would hate for you to be thinking, “damn, if only I would have run to vomiting I wouldn’t be being eaten just now”, of course as I wrote this it was being written with an English voice as that just makes the insane so much more palatable… Palatable, get it!, cause your being eaten!… hahaha-ok, ahem… sorry…

Now, to mix up the shuttle run. We can do a few things.

The first you know, add weight, make sure the pack you are using can be snug on your body. As you progress, loosen it a little and see what difference this makes.

Commando Duck ‘n’ Roll –

This is where you will dive into a forward roll as you are running forward and will pop up and immediately keep running. This will be done as many times as possible during the run and your focus will be on being as precise as possible. If you find yourself getting wild and really off focus, STOP! This is an exercise with a potential for really bad accidents up to and including a broken neck. So take this one easy and if you do not know how to do a moving forward roll, find someone to teach you. I am very serious in this, the exercise is a powerful one, but only if you know what you are doing. With any training it is only good if you come out stronger than when you started. Tired is fine and to be expected, broken is fine if it is part of a specific training regimen like that of the Ninja [they actually break bones in a specific way to make them stronger once healed, we aren’t doing that], for you, I do not want anything broken, sprained, bruised or injured, are we clear.

RAIN –

Running in the rain is not only a necessary addition to your practice, I am also hoping that through time and patience you will come to enjoy it as well.

IF YOU ARE INJURED [in general, but especially with the running as these injuries seem more common than not] –

I need you to stop what you are doing and not work through the pain, this is a pointless endeavor and should only be used when actually being chased by the undead. If you feel that you have a light sprain, immediately shake it out, start slow and build the intensity of the shaking looking to mentally picture your foot doing complete circles in either direction. This is what i learned in Kung Fu training and it DOES work, if the sprain is massive, you can try this same practice, but if the pain is too great, APPLY HEAT and immobilize with an ACE or otherwise bandage. Once comfortable, seek an acupuncturist.

Why we do not apply ICE. As I learned in Chinese medicine, it is for dead people awaiting burial and mixed drinks. Ice, in essence, literally freezes the injury in place and causes you to potentially have the beginnings of a chronic condition. Why would you, who have only just learned to run correctly based on your bodies set up, now suppose to know how to heal it, you barely even know how to feed it! If the body wants to swell the area and heat it up, let it! I don’t see you trying to breath for your body, so don’t muck up the process here either. Kung Fu warriors as Ninjas, are REAL. They kick ass for free and for profit and in the process of their training experience things that the average person may go a lifetime without getting to know. Both of them have their own medicine angles, neither of them use ice! Further, in this post apocalyptic world that you are training for, why would you use training which will have you reliant on something which simply will not exist?!? THERE WILL BE NO ICE!

Ice is used by Western medicine, because we are weak and undisciplined. When we are hurt,we do not go for what is best, we immediately want what feels best. Big Difference. As anyone who lives life, what is best and what feels best are rarely the same. This is why we use ice, it is a localized, very inexpensive anesthetic. The sooner you are able to absorb this information, the sooner you will be able to go about your training with a certain fervor and intensity. He who can heal himself from the daily rigors of training is waaay ahead of the one who relies on another. And once you know how to properly, then you are golden.

If you would like more information on Chinese medicine in your area, I suggest to you the NATSTA organization, you can also learn Kung Fu which would be most useful in a zombie apocalypse…

STRONG LIKE BULL [or BEAR depending upon your geographic location]

Strength Training –

There are a vast amount of ways to get this, the best and easiest would be, in my most humble estimation, the BATMAN WORKOUT!

My reasoning for this is as follows. It can be done anywhere, at anytime and is cumulative in its return for you the exerciser. Further, the lack of gym personnel and handi-wipes will initially be a discouragement to many and we may as well get used to a workout that we can be comfortable with when the shinola [S%$t} hits the BayBreeze [fan] slowly rotating on the ceiling.

Lastly, you will want the kind of strength that is 100 percent useful, i.e., to climb on top of things by pulling yourself up, in some cases very quickly, hopefully even the fast ones wont figure out the climbing thing so easily, but then, who knows. If they do, all the more reason to be Q U I C K E R.

Going back to our running training and in general, speed will be of a huge advantage to you in this, and it will be one of the parts of the exercise routine that will help get you in shape initially the quickest as many of us never move that fast unless we are chasing a neighbors dog who stole our riding lawn mower keys or our 3 year old who found some of daddies porn collection and is scampering towards mommy in the kitchen, and of course, vice versa. Im kidding…. hurm…..

How many of us ever snap from slow to fast in the blink of an eye, more importantly, how many of us have the neural connections to make the snap in the first place!

This speed is crucial to your coming out alive and more importantly, it is crucial in your daily lives right now as there is a whole world of things you are missing simply because you are unable to MENTALLY do this quick change in thinking.

As stated in the beginning, a majority of what is happening here is mental. The body is what it is, perfect in every way as long as you treat it as is put forth in the users manual none of us have, but all innately know. It is the mind which is our greatest triumph or stumbling block.

You have all checked out the Batman Workout, it will enable you to be on a near constant workout program even when working in whatever work you do, assuming you are not one of those who are unfortunately in slave labor like conditions, and this is a real and present situation in the world and I am sorry if you find yourself there. Truly I am, a moment of silence for you.

The reason we are looking to train with our own body weight is, well, for quite a few reasons. Aside from the fact that James Bond AND Batman use it as their primary training, it is also the one most extensively used by the elite special forces around the world. If it is good for the men who are specifically trained to kill men, then so shall it be good for us as well in our quest to be that which will be most suited to kill undead men and women of course, and probably the creepy kid zombies, ewww, ok….

Now, my main recommendation for you would be a martial art, or some advanced military training. Many of you will not be able to do this either due to scheduling or most likely, lack of teachers that you can really groove with. With a martial art, you will et a whole package so to speak, the strength, meditation, focus and most importantly a teacher, someone to drive you like the cattle you are. I do not speak down to you, I too am naught more than a dumb beast when it comes to my training, on the rare days I am able to push myself, I find it is usually because I have a partner with me, or someone I am training in Kung Fu. If I am training, Ill be damned if they do more than me, and vice-versa, if they are being trained, they want to do more than the teacher, so it becomes a positive feedback loop. Please take a moment to enjoy the Wikipedia explanation of said loop as it will be a valuable tool in your training.

Your last workout is that of making a FIRE, please read through the ENTIRE meditation section so that you can see why this is strength training as well, and a very serious strength training at that!

What Now?

You have strength, speed, stamina, you are cruising on your bike, a lot less jumpy, nerves of steel so to speak, what do we do now? Well, now it is time to turn to the finer things which are the true foundations of what we have going here. One will be diet, another will be meditation, not just sitting cross legged yogi style, but a meditative form that will be with you always at every part of the day. We will need strategy, critical thinking skills, finesse, alternative logical thinking… There really is a lot that goes into this, did I mention fasting. Oh yes, not only will this be a set up for come what may, but here and now, during this time of relative ease it is good on both a physical, mental and moral level to fast. As we are not yet at that part, we will save it for later.

the Samurai of yore would always have an assistant, servant, whatever you wish to title the person, usually a younger apprentice, who would take care or cooking food, washing clothes, finding places to stay, etc. and one other very important function. Many times I have heard it told that they were required to randomly sneak up on and attempt to strike their master. This was a way of fine tuning the mind to always be ready. You must now endeavor to do this on your own.

Lets start there…

MEDITATION

You are currently in a most wonderful environment for this section of training. Civilization. What you ask, nothing could be farther from a meditative state than running around in rush hour traffic [see bike section 1], dealing with co-workers, children, bills, deadlines, making it to the gym, my cable going out etc.!

That’s the point. You are constantly being tested on a few different levels. A. you of course are responsible for all that you have in your life. If this is not in tune with your thinking, then you have one of your first meditative mantras to focus on. I use Mantra as an idea to focus on where many of you who are familiar with meditation, especially TM [Transcendental Meditation], use a mantra to help focus. This is usually a sound specifically chosen for you by your teacher, and it should always remain secret!

B. You have so many opportunities to be distracted you never have to worry about being tested as you are tested constantly on all fronts.

C. When you start to behave in a different manner to situations which come up time and time again, you begin to see how this new way of dealing with the “same old same old” brings about an entirely new and much more appreciated outcome, you now have further motivation to continue deepening the practice. It becomes a positive feedback loop. This means that you do something, a good things happens you do more, more good things etc. Whereas many today are in the exact opposite called a negative feedback loop and an even greater majority simply are stuck and they do not even realize it.

This is what is idealized in the training that Luke underwent with Master Yoda in StarWars. It is all very well and good to be Zen and able to do a one handed handstand, but what about when you are being beaten with a stick, or when there are annoying noises… will you still be zen, and if not, then you are not ready.

Thats what we are aiming for here. Your r e a d i n e s s. To be Ninja in body but not in mind is POINTLESS. If the slightest things throw you off, you are lost in a world gone mad. If you cannot cope with the world you find yourself in now, what will you do then, when the undead roam the earth?

We begin…

Lets start simply and easily and work up to the harder stuff.

Begin by spending a few minutes a day focusing on your breath, whatever you are doing, be sure and keep the focus on your breathing. Do this while brushing your teeth, trust me, you can do this=] While preparing food for yourself, or ordering coffee, focus on your breath. Remember, the breath is the life. Engage your focus for longer and longer periods on this. At some point, you will see that in times of stress you will begin to tune into your breathing as a sort of solace. This is the beginning of self realization. You will be live at this point, truly alive, when all other things can fall away in the face of your continuous breathing, you will be entering a new head space. You will begin to look at everything around you in a brand new way. Yes, your life will be exactly as it was, your job, your daily activities, the gym, shopping, all of it the same, yet you will be different. You are now aware. No longer are you mindlessly gong about a task while mentally creating a million possible futures while basing these on a million different variations of the past that either did or did not happen but in the end are meaningless because you can no more change what happened to them than you can change the outcome of a sports game on TV by lamenting a play that could have gone differently. It is as it is and moving forward is the only way to go. moving forward into the very moments that you find yourself in, not an hour from now, you needn’t trouble yourself with it, nor a day, a week or a year from now. none of that matters, what matters is what you are doing right here and now and this is the beauty of a Zombie Apocalypse, we all feel deep down the rush of what it would be to live in this world for the simple fact we would have to be like the Samurai, ever aware of his apprentice who may smack him with a birch rod. That’s the beauty, the thrill. Being so pre-occuppied with what is truly happening that you have no choice but to be fully present. Surely you have heard this from places other than here, and its true!

One is a Ninja, a Mohammed, a Samurai, a Buddha, a Bruce Lee, a Christ, an Olympic Gold medalist et-cetera, when one can be fully engaged in the minutiae of the moment and act seemingly according to the divine plan, to ones intuition on a gut level. This is why you want to focus on your breath more and more. While it may seem easy, it is not.

So to start, set your alarm, be it your watch, your smart phone, whatever on a 10 minute cycle. Remind yourself to constantly be tuning into your breath. And do of course use a decent alarm volume and sound!

Once you start to get the hang of “watching your breath, now I would like you to turn your attention to your posture, BUT, of course, still keep the focus on the breath!

POSTURE –

Most of us at some time or another have bad posture. Many live in a perpetual state of bad posture and do not even know why, nor do they even realize it. There are many reasons for bad posture, from the living conditions which we find ourselves, and I am speaking to beds which are too soft, chairs that are made for creatures as yet to be identified but surely musn’t be human, a big one that is often overlooked is that when walks around with correct posture, current civilization techniques have rendered us to immediately register these people as proud. if they are not wealthy or in a position superior to ours we will do everything in our power both overtly and covertly to bring them back down to the station we feel they should be placed in. naturally we do this to ourselves.

It is time for all of that to go by the wayside, this is the Zombie Apocalypse. Your posture is one of your greatest strengths when it comes to feeling well and actually being healthy!

Stand barefoot with your feet slightly apart. Now stand up straight, really straight, like there is a strings of pearls dropped down from the heavens and grabbed hold of some of the hairs or flesh if you are bald on the very crown of your skull and gently pulled up.

Your chin will be raised and your head will be slightly back, I want you to feel a slight pull, or pressure in the throat area due to this.

YOUR SHOULDERS WILL BE RELAXED and pulled down and back. Almost as though you are throwing your chest open.

Arms will be at your sides with the palms flat and open resting lightly somewhere on the side of your body, for most it will be the upper outer thigh, if your form is right and it is not this area, no worries, as God made us all different so its all good. I am not looking for you to change your body, only your posture!

Your stomach muscles will be activated. not flexed like you are vainly doing your best to look good in a beach photo, but activated, ready, they are sharing the burden/joy, of holding your body in right position along with your lower back muscles, the upper back muscles are still engaged in keeping your shoulders down and back. This will take time to get used to, keep on keepin on.

Do you understand,….? I am asking you to focus on this at all times of the day whatever you are doing, your breath and your posture are what you think of yourself transmitted to the rest of the world. Be proud, but not vain. You are alive, this is a lottery win of such epic proportions that I cannot begin to even describe it, a c t like it.

Your “tail” will be tucked, knees ever so slightly bent. When you walk, as when you run, you move form the hips. All of your movement in fact will come from this are. The Dan Tien as we spoke of earlier, is the center for your physical being according to many schools of thought, from Chinese medicine and Martial Arts to Salsa Dancing.

You are now posturaly [that may or may not be a word] aligned and correct. Now you have to pay attention to this and protect it. See how your shoulders creep up in tension when typing on a keyboard or when you are being yelled at by your boss or arguing with a loved one. See how you slouch in your chair or shuffle your feet while you walk. All of this is sending out a signal that says, “HEY ZOMBIES, COME GET ME!”.

Be the survivor you are and look like it!

SITTING MEDITATION-

There are many ways to go about doing this. I recommend using a cushion to raise your butt higher than your ankles and feet to take the strain off your lower back. Posture will be a key in your meditating as it was mentioned before, always focus on posture!

Now, you are seated, there are numerous ways to go about doing this. First lets look at the different ways you can align your legs with this handy illustration here:

Go for whatever posture feels best for you. Seiza is using a small stool made specifically for meditation.

The point here is learning to work with and understand the nature of the mind, not to wrestle with your body. That is what the previous sections are for. here is where you look internally a what makes you who you are, further, what IS you? When we refer to YOU, who is it we are referring to?

You will see through some time, patience and practice, that there is a definite separation of different parts of your mind, a sort of schizophrenia if you will. There are thoughts, always there are thoughts, and yet there is also a part of you that can look at these thoughts, as you would water flowing by in a stream, or as OSHO recommends, “…look upon your thoughts as clouds crossing the sky.”.

There are a few different methods that can be employed, well, there are so many methods that it would be impractical to list them all here. I will list those that I have found to work for me.

1. One of the more powerful ones, again, FOR ME, you are reading this online, don’t be scared to do some research, FOR YOU=] For me, I have found the candle to be a most powerful tool. You simply light a single candle, in a dark room and keep your gaze focused on it and maintain this focus. Once you try it, you will see why it is so powerful a technique, one wouldn’t think ones mind wonders so much until you have a specific task, such as staring at a candle, to remind you just how much your mind wonders! Ensure that the candle is in a jar, or proper candle holder, I only mention this as I woke up to a small bonfire on my living room table after falling asleep during my meditation in Hawaii=]

2. Another method is that of continuing to focus on your breath, AND, actually moving the energy imparted from this breathing in the actual microcosmic orbit we discussed earlier. Please know that this is not a simple practice. It may take you some time and again, I am not a good one to be your teacher. Please do your research and know that if you master this, you will have the beginnings of enlightenment within your grasp.

2/a Focusing on the breath in coordination with focusing on your heart beats and then setting up, 4 beats per breath, et cetera. I do not use this often, BUT, this is considered an extremely powerful meditation as it brings to bear your singular focus on the heart. Scientists have recently discovered that the heart itself has a completely separate electromagnetic field capable of affecting anything within its radius which is measurable to 3 meters! WOW. Of course, spiritual practitioners have known this for some time. Now you do, look it up, this could be the one for you. Again, extremely powerful.

3. One very pleasant meditation is by placing yourself in a completely natural surrounding, choosing a certain position which is comfortable and then not moving at all and completely being absorbed into the environment.

4. Prayer. Yes, I am talking about folding your hands, or bending your forehead to a mat and praising whatever God you so choose to claim as the one. When I lived in Hawaii, I had the chance to have relationship counseling with a most masterful gentleman and psychiatrist [He could prescribe drugs]/therapist and he was studying to be a Catholic Priest. I was most fortunate, aside from the insight I gained into relationships and myself, I learned a truth that I had never bothered to think of regarding prayer. he told me that what the truly devout were doing with their epic prayer sessions was not simply to commune with god, whom they knew to be in themselves and a force surrounding everything, but they were seeking to replicate emotional responses in themselves. They would pray until they literally felt JOY, or COMPASSION. This is mentioned also in Buddhism, the COMPASSION meditation. The reason for this, and now I am on my own here, is that these feelings bring about dramatic changes in the body. As you know we are driven by chemicals, everything that takes place in the body is based upon a certain chemical setting off a remarkable series of dominoes. As one sequence based on the feeling of self hate will bring about cancer, so will an equivalent feeling of joy or rapture, self love, bring about great healing and the ability to heal others. Heal others you exclaim, yes, heal others, see meditation 2/a, the heart has that field of electromagnetism, it can affect a big area, if you have your transmitter sent to goodness and joy, you will bring about a change in the other persons electromagnetic field. It has been measured that the positive feelings are stringer than negative ones, so in a situation where you have lets say a Monk [a non-denominational wants the best for all regardless of religious preference], praying at the bedside of a very sick person, should this monk have a strong enough belief, then it will be made real within the monks heart, this will in turn begin to change the frequency of the person in the bed and if done for long enough and often enough, good things can and will happen, to this we call – Miracle.

In all of these and of the myriad other ways to meditate, one seeming thought comes through with a regularity, you are not seeking to Silence the mind, so much as not be affected by the thoughts which will invariable arise from the mind. You seek to not be effected so that you may turn your inner gaze to what truly matters.

It is designed, the mind I am referring to, it is made to think. That is its job, 24 hours a day you will have neural activity until the day you die, and then you become a zombie and only then have extremely limited neural activity, usually associated with the “reptilian brain”, this is the lower portion of your whole package, the area that covers all the stuff you don’t think about, breathing, heartbeat, impulses, like eating, and once you change, eating other humans alive… There is much to be learned about this and I suggest you turn to Google for more.

Now you may be wondering why meditation is very important in this post apocalyptic world. I can only direct you in the basic of ways, as you wont fully get it until you have practiced meditating enough to be able to miss it from your day. I am not trying to rope you in, by holding out, somethings, especially as subtle as this, are near impossible to explain, they can only be experienced.

We have All manner of martial artists and the most successful of the successful, and all of them meditate. Spiritual Masters, Religious Leaders, I speak of true religious leaders, not those who would seek your money or your blind obedience. Great Industry Tycoons, truly you will see the more you look that those who are most successful meditate… daily.

It is a way to gain clarity. Once you begin to recognize that simple fact that was mentioned earlier, that of the brain being a non stop thought creating machine, you begin to see that every little incident in your life will create thoughts. Once you see this, you start to see your urge to follow up on ALL of these thoughts. Once you see this, you begin to understand how easily you allow yourself to be jerked to a fro. It is not an intentionally “mean” thing that your brain is doing, it simply is what it is meant to do, thank God, as it constantly comes up with ideas, you are able to move through obstacles of all kinds. Once you realize that it will always throw all sorts of ideas out constantly, you begin to see it as more a mad radio, constantly switching through stations until YOU choose one. As soon as you choose any one particular station, more thoughts will now cascade under that main heading that got you to focus, the moment you pull out of that one particular cascade of thought, you can begin to search the limitless, thoughts – IDEAS until you find one that BEST SUITS THE SITUATION.

Another way to look at it is that of a constantly shifting menu. Of course you would not be able to eat everything on the menu, you wouldn’t think of it. What is a menu but a suggestion of something you could have. It is up to you to choose from the selections which is best suited for you. The same with thoughts, these are suggestions, do not seek to entertain them all or nothing will get done.

None of this can happen unless you are able to see the whole process for what it is. No matter how much I write here, nothing will take the place of you actually experiencing it. ONCE AGAIN, this will take some time, or maybe not, some are natural born ninja, I truly hope you are, I am not and am only speaking for myself when I speak of it taking time. For many it does, and for a few, it is done before it began.

In gaining control of how your mind works, you can then use it to your best advantage in the quickest amount of time. As you will be making many Life or Death decisions in fractions of a second which will have no reset or try again option, wouldn’t you agree that learning the way it works would be to your best benefit?

Mixing it up –

This is where we go Yoda style and you can begin to do static exercises. I had initially wanted to put them in the strength training section, but feared that the overarching point would be lost, these will help you to become string, they will tighten the core of your body, BUT, the focal point is mastery of the mind. I am now going to be explaining exercises that are very physically demanding as you are unmoving.

The Plank – This can be done in two ways and I would like you to use both of them. The first you will be in push up position to start, you will raise up on your elbows and clasp your hands in whatever manner seems most comfortable and then you will stay there for as long as you can. I suggest timing yourself or having a friend do it with you as otherwise your mind will trick you into thinking you did a long time when in actuality only a minute or two passed. If that is all you can do in the beginning, no problem, just keep on keepin’ on and you will gain much core power and of course, mental control.

Squat at the Wall – Very easy in concept, much more difficult in execution. Find a wall, lean against it and slowly go down into a sitting position. Ensure that your knees do not extend past your toes as this will bring about a shearing force which is bad for the knees. Keep your arms straight in front of you, like a zombie, and simply stay for as long as you can.

Don’t get lazy, more meditative strength training to come…

And one last meditation method you probably never would have thought about and yet, I assure you it is, further, it will save our life and tie in everything else we talked about prior to this point, well, kind of.

BUILDING FIRE– This may well be one of the most deciding factors for your survival, not only in the world which you are training for, but the one you are living in now. When I speak of building a fire, you must of course submit to my methodology until you are sufficiently progressed that you can dispense with the most important initial stages.

A. You my friend will cut the wood for this fire and you will do it with a NON motorized saw. It MUST be a handsaw, powered 100% by you.

B. Your focus must be on a few different things at once. Your hands will be hitting various angles and will try to get you to contort your body into a poor posture, you must avoid this at all costs and do your very best to always maintain proper posture. I am not saying of course that you must always be upright, no, what I am saying is that you must always have an awareness of balance within your musculo-skeletal system. For example. If you are bending over to saw, I want your knees bent and a whole-hearted constant focus on the mid section, ensure that your stomach muscles are always more engaged than your lower back. Further, when I talk about the stomach, I want it engaged all the way to your bits and pieces, the entire core must be activated lest this exercise go from strengthening to a slow degradation. If you do not understand, we can chat on skype or through email. It is very important that you maintain 100 percent awareness about your body during this sawing!

DIET – most important advice for whatever you eat – chew a lot.

Oh joy, food! Given the circumstances the first thing I want to impress upon you is the sheer lack of readily available food and clean water. Know this, it is very important that you do not for a minute think that the world will be as you know it now. And if you choose to live now as though these things really and truly mattered, your whole life would become much more fulfilling.

Most if not all of you reading this will never know hunger, true hunger, yes you get hungry and it is only because you are not near a store or are out of a your favorite – fill in the blank – food that you are not satisfied immediately. One of the first things we have to agree upon is what is and is not good for you based on what will be available to you, surprisingly, this has a 100 percent grounding in the world you inhabit today… have you noticed that yet, you don’t need to wait for the Apocalypse to put this into effect…

You will find a lot of pre-packaged foods that will still be edible while the meat, dairy and veggie/fruit section have gone to pot. Again, the revolution will not be electrified.

So, what do you do? You need to read labels and understand a most simple law of “Conservation of Energy“. Actually, that wont really help you as it refers to isolated systems, of which yours is only isolated in that you are of and in the world, ergo, ashes to ashes and dust to dust. But you may as well learn about it as intelligence is its own reward!

What I am wanting to impart to you is the idea that your body uses energy to process what you eat and if it does not receive an equivalent or GREATER amount of energy, eventually, you’re up the creek with nary a paddle to be found! This is a most basic idea that when applied to your eating brings about, potentially a radical shift in said way of attacking ones grub.

Many of us never stop to take the time to learn about how the body functions, so in order to wow you into submission, we will go through a very short and sweet explanation of what happens when you eat.

First you chew, the chewing will bring about the initial breakdown of the material, I use material because depending on what you are eating, it is either a food, or a food like substance thanks to modern science and your shit ability to eat proper nutrition and a severe lack of will power in the face of commercials. As the chewing is the first contact you have with your food, I urge you to chew a lot, one of the generally accepted rules of thumb is to chew your age. Even if it is a smoothie, this of course is speaking to the pre-Zombie Apocalypse, bless your heart of you’ve figured out smoothies once the damned walk, the chewing action is what gets the whole situation in gear, well, being technical, the sense of smell and secondarily that of sight truly get the ball rolling. Watch a mother feeding a baby. If ever a human ate food that would NOT need your assistance beyond a swallow, it is baby food AND YET, there they are, almost like they are pre-programmed to chew, they cant help it and neither should you!

One really great thing to have done is a colon flush by a professional, the kind where you can see all the little bits floating by and the technician is able to give you a surprising level of info about you and your bodies health based upon it. One, you need to get over the fecal embarrassment, everyone who is a human, or that lives on this planet has waste, if yours smells of roses all the better to not be embarrassed.

Second, you will learn a lot about what is going on inside you from the technician – make sure you have a very good technician – I can only refer you to the only one I saw, but, when you share your shit with someone via a tube being inserted into your anus and water being flushed into it, you know fairly quickly if they are good or bad. Healing Pathways, Kamuela Hawaii, speak to Denise.

Thirdly, is that a word, apparently so… you will see how little you chew, and because of that, how you lose out on many vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc. simply because you chew poorly. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I don’t think people would have to eat as much if they chewed properly. A, their systems would have time to function properly and the signal from the brain to the stomach would get there in proper time to prevent overeating [which is a debilitating act that leads to many problems, more so than under eating, well, to a point, its complicated], further, you would get what you need from what you ate instead of having to eat twice as much, you would simply chew twice as much. Its not really going out on a limb, I just said that to introduce edginess, its actual scientific finding….

Right…

The initial substance is broken down mechanically AND chemically through the saliva. It is very important that you in fact chew your food and not as the saying goes, wolf it down. Chewing and the creation of enzymes/saliva both take energy to produce.

You swallow, peristaltic action, this is the musculature of your mouth and throat, all the way down to your stomach work in concert to bring the food to your belly, sorry if you thought it was gravity, it is not and yes, it too uses energy to happen.

NOW we find ourselves in the stomach, many many things happening at once from specific enzymes based on what you ate, more muscular action and time depending on what was ingested.

All of this is very important, if you were wondering because food will be at a premium, whatever you do find will be of the up most value, and if it is unhealthy, it may be best to forgo it all together as we shall see, please, keep reading.

Once the food is properly digested, it will begin its travel through the intestine where vitamins, minerals, proteins… all the stuff that keeps you alive is taken out and disseminated to the body. Once all has been extracted that can be extracted, it goes onto glory in the form of urine or feces.

Again, an energy consuming process, luckily, it is done for you and all you have to do is remember the following ideas.

1. If the food you eat is unnatural, i.e. made with processed ingredients such as REFINED – sugar or salt, chemical ingredients, processed flours, oils,etc., the amount of energy your body will be able to take from them will be so very small, BUT, the energy your body will use to process them out of the system will be large. Further, these ingredients will usually result in free radical cellular damage, this is usually a starting point for cancer, so now your body has to use more energy to kill cancerous cells, i.e., the immune system is now switched on, even MORE ENERGY. If what you eat takes more energy to process and dispose of than the energy you actually are able to use from it, was it worth eating.

I’ll help you…NO. Does this make sense?

Please allow me a different and yet totally palatable, get it – palatable, cause we are talking about eating.. no, O.K., anyway, different explanation.

You have a business, it costs you two dollars in business expense to make one dollar in profit. At some point you will go out of business given enough time. When it comes to your body, that is when you begin to get sick and eventually die. Death=zombification. You are reading this to avoid that, so please, I know that you like your Ding Dongs, god rest their little chemically driven hearts, but you simply must start learning to be ninja, and since you are what you eat, well, YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT – no rocket science necessary=]

Your best bet is to go for the most natural and plant based things you can find. There will, god willing, be veggies growing, you will need to find a book store and get some books detailing the local flora and fauna, while you are at it, since this is our first mention of book stores, take some books on local herbal remedies. Ill explain more in the medical section. If you are getting these books pre-Apocalypse, I would suggest Amazon as you can get great deals with used books, if it is post Apocalypse, well, no worries about things, take what you like.

Part of my reasoning for this push towards a plant based diet s that of sound scientific reasoning. If you have not yet had a chance to see the documentary “Forks over Knives”, I strongly urge you to do so as it has nothing but very well thought out science i a form that is totally digestible, get it, digestible, cause we’re talking about food… sigh… For you to really understand and see from collection of real world data the effect of food upon ones physical being.

Now, in this world that we find ourselves, I don’t know about you, but I would like to avoid being ill as much as possible, further, given the absolute lack of electricity, trained support staff and Scientists/Surgeons, I want to do my very best to ensure that my diet is not going to be the cause for any radical disease, i.e., cancer, heart conditions, diabetes etc. I need to make sure that everything I eat is taking me to a healthy place and not one where I will eventually have to rely on modern science to cure me as, THERE WILL BE NO MORE MODERN SCIENCE! Again, if it relies on electricity or complicated schooling/production to be of service to me, it is not relevant in this world, ergo, I must begin to separate the wheat from the chaff now, while it is relevant. It is easiest to change a tire for the first time when the tire does not need to be changed.

As this is not an angle to try and convert you to veganism, I will finish by adding that the science is overwhelmingly in favor of a plant based diet for the health of the human body. if you get used to it now, you will have a much better understanding of what it takes to make a diet like this work, AND, it will make your eventual homesteading much easier and will keep you on the look out for seed packets which will be the beginning of your sustainable lifestyle. Should you be interested in learning more, I have a fairly decent article here, though, please know that once the Apocalypse begins most of it will be rendered moot, so, if you are truly interested, I would strongly urge you to start now – Vegan Beginner Guide.

Now, this brings up a very important subject that we spoke about very early on in this instruction manual. MONSANTO. There are a few reasons for this and you need to know of them as it will greatly impact your health both pre and post The Rise of the Walking Dead.

Monsanto is currently one of the most talked about and most aggressive companies in the field of genetically altering or natural food supply and the insects associated with it. This is troubling to you for the followings reasons:

1. Genetically altered fruits and vegetables are more and more being found responsible for food allergies, eczema’s, all manner of conditions which WILL NOT, make the zombie days easier.

2. They currently own and have the co-patent with the United States Government, for the “Terminator Seed” technology. In its most basic explanation, if you were to plant a seed that had this tech built into it, you would get one plant, so far so good. Lets say its corn. You now take ALL the kernels and plant them, kernels being the seeds of corn. NONE OF THE KERNELS WOULD GROW. This is Terminator technology. It makes you the farmer totally dependent on the company Monsanto, or whomever they and the United States government lease this tech too.

3. Genetically altered fruits/veggies have been shown to have far fewer of their non modified versions levels of vitamins and minerals. In some cases, what vitamins and minerals are available are rendered, how shall i say, odd, no longer natural and so readily used by your very natural human body.

4. Currently, the corn they are mass producing contains the genetic map to self produce BT TOXIN. This is an insecticide which causes the stomachs of the insects to explode. If you think that this is an acceptable by product, you probably dont need to hear much of what I have to say.

5. Most large countries and many Third World Countries are increasingly banning use of all GMO’s due to their scientific findings of birth defects, loss of babies in-utero and upon being born, cancer growth, destruction of natural flora and fauna, the list is long an definitely warrants further review by you while you still have internet and electricity to run it all.

My point in all this, for now, have a small garden, for two reasons.

A. You need to learn to grow a plant. Don’t even worry about your dairy farm you meat eaters are dreaming of and seem to want to bring up when we have conversations until you at least figure out how to grow something, and no, it is not so easy. It takes time to learn and to respect the seasons, many many things go into getting a seed to sprout, let alone getting the sprot to make food.

B. you want to learn basic seed saving methods now, while you still have Google and Youtube.

Simple Sprouting Guide.

1. Go to store.

2. Buy any bean that has been dried.

3. Come home and soak beans for 24 hours in clean water.

4. After soaking, place beans in a colander [the thing you use to get the water out of the spaghetti, that has all the little holes].

5. Place a towel over the top of it to control the humidity, don’t want them too dry!

6. Water the beans twice a day, morning and night.

7. Two to four days you should have magic in the form of sprouts.

8. Congratulations are in order, try this with many seeds and nuts, show your children and change the world, THIS is the stuff that will save you! This will not work with seeds or nuts that have been artificially dried by an over or microwave as they are now dead. And of course, the seeds that are salted and friend in oil like the cocktail mix, if you can get them to sprout, you have some serious skill and probably don’t need to worry about anything written here.

So now you are eating well and learning to fend for yourself as far as growing food, ergo, being self reliant and sustainable, what now… Duh, now you learn what half of the worlds population knows on a daily basis – How to Starve.

FASTING –

I’m sure this is coming like a wrecking ball to your dreams of spinning helicopter kicks and precise blows to the sides of zombies heads with Ninja Swords. I assure you that this is one of the more relevant entries in this work. You see, in the beginning, you will have a relatively easy time of finding food, I mean to say, that for the first month, you should have good pickins’, IF YOU CAN SURVIVE THE TRIP, that’s the rub isn’t it, but that aside…

There will be deep freezes that will stay cold for some time, and places where you will be able to find food a plenty early on, but as time begins to stretch out, finding food will become ever increasingly difficult. You will be of course in competition with other survivors, or if you are intelligent, you will be in cooperation with them. Think on that.

Now, for the sake of or sensitivities with not eating, we have to be prepared to do such a thing. Part of that preparation comes from understanding why we are gong to do this and then how.

Why, well, to prepare us for periods of time when food will not be readily available. Many of us, if we go a few hours past or “normal” meal times, begin to quite literally panic as though we would die at any moment. This needs to be worked out of the program as it is an abhorrent sickness resulting from a life that is simply to comfortable. You have literally lost touch with what is needed and what is realistic.

A majority of the world is stoked to have 2 meals per day and does exceedingly well with it, for instance, Shaolin Monks, some of the fiercest and most refined warriors on the planet, they eat two meals, small, per day, yet they can do two finger hand stands.

A larger part of the worlds population simply doesn’t have enough to eat at all and is in fact under nourished. It is these people I want you to focus on now. I want you to feel what it is to be without, which, when you see what your options are, you are still doing far better than these poor souls as ITS YOUR CHOICE! These people have no choice in the fact that they have nothing to eat. So you will be learning compassion, one of the greatest weapons at your disposal in any situation, especially a Zombie Apocalypse.

Fasting is good for a few reasons, beyond getting to learn to live with the edginess and confusion hunger brings, which will be a most necessary frame of reference, I see how often people literally become bumbling fools upon missing a single meal, do you truly think this person is going to last in a Zombie Apocalypse. You will need to be on point at all times, no matter what the situation.

Secondly a fast, here in this pre-apocalypse world, will give your body a chance to heal. Do you recall what we spoke of early as to the energy used to process food, it s a lot of work, your body doesn’t multi-task as easily as you think, this time of reduced caloric intake will give your body time to heal o a deep level. This healing will include detoxing the body of all the junk that collects through your day to day life. I speak now to carcinogens, chemicals, heavy metals, all the products of living in society.

You probably have things going on in your body that you are not even aware of, cancers, on such a small level they are as yet undetectable and totally natural. Everyone has errant cells in his or her body, we dispose of them regularly, as with anything, giving time to catch up on tasks is a fantastic way to ensure long term health.

How we do this…

There are many different ways to fast, we are going to go over three. As for all fasts, I would like you to turn to a mostly raw plant diet for at least 2 days prior of any of the fasts. So smoothies, salads, etc. I will flesh this out as the article progresses, for now, as always, do your own research. The most likely to survive is the one with a mind most capable of thinking for itself and finding knowledge on its own terms.

The first three days will be the most difficult. Trust me on this, especially if you have never done it before… It will seem like you are going to die, in this time, I would like you to really meditate on hunger and the condition of those arond the world who do not have the luxury of actually deciding to be hungry as you are now doing. I need you to become strong for them in this time. To grow up as a human…

The first is the Master Cleanse – You will be drinking a concoction of lemon juice, mixed with lime, the lime is alkaline and will trump the acidity of acidic fruits, you want to be alkaline. Maple Syrup, the real stuff as it has vitamins, minerals and most importantly sugars that are easily processed by the body. Number one user of sugar is the brain, what happens when you get low on sugar, you get loopy, this will ensure that never happens. Cayenne, a very powerful detoxer, not a word, and ninjaficating additive. lastly, copious amounts of water. Make large volumes of this mix to taste, and DO NOT make it exceedingly sweet! This will be your entrance to oblivion!

You drink this all day and start with a 5 day cleanse at first. Of course, as long as you are doing O.K., you can go longer!

Things to remember –

When you bitch and moan, remember, you are doing this to become stronger. Secondly, now you know how it feels, get used to it. Millions DAILY feel like this for weeks on end and not because they have a choice. It is simply as it is for them. You have a choice. if you truly feel that a zombie apocalypse is possible, then you must get used to this now. You will feel agitated, grumpy, you will get light headed, the works. Better to “survive” these symptoms now and get them out of the way so that when the apocalypse comes, you don’t get munched because you are dealing with hunger pains…. How Ironic, you get eaten because you cant handle not eating…. Of course you do realize that food will not be a given, unless you are a zombie then there will be food running all around. Most of you will die in the first few hours of the apocalypse, sorry, its just a simple fact. For those of you who make it past the initial few hours, you will have a host of difficulties to overcome and lack of food will be a big one.

In the meantime, use this experience to help you re-evaluate the life you are living and maybe make some changes now and who knows, maybe we could avoid the whole sordid mess!